Kept it pretty simple tonight. Took out a 4 lb bag of shrimp to boil. We love to boil a small batch of shrimp, then peel what we don’t eat, and make a shrimp salad. We’ve been doing this the same way for well over 40 years, my entire life.
Granted, I would prefer head-on shrimp for boiling. But we usually get large batches of really fresh shrimp and always have to freeze some. I typically freeze my shrimp with heads off, so we make do. This still comes out great.
all I’m doing here is measuring out my water. I’ll remove the shrimp before adding the seasoning, but I want my water to just cover the shrimp for small batches like this.
To the water I add 3/4 cup salt, 2-3 bags of zatarains seasoning bags, 1/3 cup cayenne, 3-4 lemons, 2-3 onions, couple stalks of celery and at least two whole heads of garlic, cut in half. Add a little cooking oil to the water, bring it to a boil, add the shrimp & bring to a second boil, trying to keep the total cook time to about 4 minutes. Then I turn the heat off, cover 3/4 of the pot and let the shrimp soak for 20 minutes. Then I strain all the shrimp out of the water and it’s time to eat!
here they are soaking, right before covering
.
time to eat! But that’s not the best part. To me, leftover shrimp salad is about as good as it gets. Here’s my family’s recipe. It’s not anything fancy but I wouldn’t change a thing. Now you have to eyeball this bc you never know how much shrimp you have leftover. But chop some iceberg lettuce, green onion, celery, rough chop your shrimp, add about two dollops of mayo, cracked black pepper and a dash or two of old bay. Mix it up and try to let it sit for at least an hour or two. But overnight is better.
Serve it on a saltine cracker and it’s heaven!
hope everyone has a great weekend!
Granted, I would prefer head-on shrimp for boiling. But we usually get large batches of really fresh shrimp and always have to freeze some. I typically freeze my shrimp with heads off, so we make do. This still comes out great.
all I’m doing here is measuring out my water. I’ll remove the shrimp before adding the seasoning, but I want my water to just cover the shrimp for small batches like this.
To the water I add 3/4 cup salt, 2-3 bags of zatarains seasoning bags, 1/3 cup cayenne, 3-4 lemons, 2-3 onions, couple stalks of celery and at least two whole heads of garlic, cut in half. Add a little cooking oil to the water, bring it to a boil, add the shrimp & bring to a second boil, trying to keep the total cook time to about 4 minutes. Then I turn the heat off, cover 3/4 of the pot and let the shrimp soak for 20 minutes. Then I strain all the shrimp out of the water and it’s time to eat!
here they are soaking, right before covering
.
time to eat! But that’s not the best part. To me, leftover shrimp salad is about as good as it gets. Here’s my family’s recipe. It’s not anything fancy but I wouldn’t change a thing. Now you have to eyeball this bc you never know how much shrimp you have leftover. But chop some iceberg lettuce, green onion, celery, rough chop your shrimp, add about two dollops of mayo, cracked black pepper and a dash or two of old bay. Mix it up and try to let it sit for at least an hour or two. But overnight is better.
Serve it on a saltine cracker and it’s heaven!
hope everyone has a great weekend!
